Perfect
by Emerald Tide
Summary: Because of her past, Rima hates people who seem perfect. Because of his past, Nagihiko created a mask that makes him seem perfect. What happens when they meet? Will Rima let go of her prejudices and learn to love? Mostly Rimahiko, some Tadamu vs. Amuto.


_School is boring._

Rima Mashiro yawned as she slowly walked to school. Her eyes were slightly foggy from lack of sleep. _Stupid dreams… _Crowds of students pushed past her (one actually shoving her into the road), but she was too lost in her thoughts to care. It was true – school was boring, to the extent that she wanted to tell Nikaidou-sensei to shut his mouth and give her something to do, or quit his stupid job.

"Yaya wants candy!"

Rima whipped around and saw the "Guardians", the "popular" group of the school. The boys were Tadase Hotori, Kairi Sanjo, Kukai Souma, and Ikuto Tsukiyomi, while the girls were Amu Hinamori, Utau Hoshina, and Yaya Yuiki. Fuyuki Kirishima had been part of the group, until he transferred schools (which was partly, no, all Rima's fault, but that was another story).

She didn't know much about the guys, but she knew what the girls were like. They weren't the clichéd bastards that acted like they ruled the world and were friendly only with the adults, though. They were popular because of their personalities. Okay, fine, that was stretching it. They were all popular because of their looks, but at least they were all kind – except Utau Hoshina. Then again, she had deserved that shove. Rima sighed.

Yaya Yuiki was cheerful, nice, and had a sweet tooth – almost like a small child. Sometimes, she would start chattering away about some new manga or brand of candy that she'd discovered, which everyone else felt was incredibly cute (but Rima felt it was incredibly annoying).

Utau Hoshina was – how do you put it – _strong-willed. _She was very blunt and would stop at nothing to get revenge (Rima remembered that shove again), and was looked up to by most of the student population.

Amu Hinamori… well, she had a nickname: Cool & Spicy. That explained enough about her. She acted nonchalant and uncaring, but Rima knew better. She had seen Amu squealing over things the "Cool & Spicy" girl wouldn't have when she thought nobody was looking. Plus, there had been that time… Rima sank completely into her thoughts.

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><p><em>*Flashback*<em>

_It was a mere week after she had confronted Fuyuki Kirishima, a mere week after he had transferred schools, a mere week after she had been isolated by the entire school population. Rima was walking down the hall during lunch when – BAM! She bumped into something soft and lost her balance._

_She squeezed her eyes shut and landed on the hard floor. "Ouch…" she whispered softly._

"_Oh, sorry about –" The voice stopped, and the person gasped a little. Peering through her watery eyes, Rima saw Amu Hinamori, in all her Cool & Spicy glory, staring at her in shock. "Aren't you the one who –"_

"_Rejected Fuyuki Kirishima in front of the entire student population? Yes," Rima snapped angrily. Wasn't it obvious? She still regretted doing it so harshly, and felt bad for hurting his feelings (though it wasn't like she'd ever show it), but he needed to be stopped. But again, that was another story._

"_Oh…" Amu said softly. She seemed at a loss for words. Then, she held out her hand reluctantly and with just the slightest hint of Cool & Spicy. "Here…"_

_Rima's eyes widened. Surprising even herself, she slapped Amu's hand away and ran, but not before she saw the hurt in Amu's eyes._

_The next day, Utau shoved Rima against a wall much, much harder than Amu had crashed into Rima. Then she turned back and sneered, "Serves you right."_

_Rima remembered that for the rest of her life._

* * *

><p>None of the Guardians acted like she was there, except Utau. She gave Rima a glare, and passed her along with the others. Rima felt the urge to roll her eyes. It had been nearly half a year since Utau had crashed into her on purpose.<p>

Sometimes, she felt really jealous of the Guardians. They were nice, popular, and had it all. Well, she had been popular when she first came to school, hadn't she? Rima recalled girls peeking jealously at her golden curls out of the corner of their eyes and boys just flat-out _staring _at her because of her large, amber eyes and her small, rosy lips. But because of her inability to trust, make friends, or even be nice to anyone, she had been shunned. Luckily now it wasn't so bad. Now people didn't glare at her or even try to steal her things. Now she had just been marked as an untouchable. Which was okay, because now her locker wasn't stuffed with love letters. Yet now, she envied those girls with friends that they could share secrets and laugh freely with… Rima shook those thoughts out of her head. She had brought this on herself. She deserved it.

Soon, Rima got to school and sat down in her homeroom desk. Nikaidou-sensei walked into the room and said cheerfully, "We have a new transfer student."

The entire class gasped.

Transfer students were a very, very big deal – unfortunately for the student. As soon as they walked into the classroom, the entire class would evaluate them and decide whether they were worthy of being in the Guardians. Then they immediately started passing around ridiculous rumors that no sane person would believe. Remembering vaguely what had happened when _she _had transferred there, Rima felt sorry for the new student. It almost made her feel thankful that she had been ostracized.

Nikaidou-sensei smiled and called, "Come in!"

The new student walked in. All at once, there were screams – literally.

He was… good-looking. Rima tilted her head to the side and studied him through squinted eyes. She was the only one who hadn't swooned yet. In fact, she felt a sense of dread. He had long purple hair that reached a little below his waist, and pale skin. He and You-Don't-Want-To-Know-Who looked nothing alike.

Except for the eyes. When he looked at her for a split second, she felt her heart drop.

Their eyes were the same shade of copper.

Rima's heart began to thud violently. She felt herself avert her eyes instantly and glanced at the empty desk next to her. _Oh no._

Nikaidou-sensei smiled lightly. "Introduce yourself, please."

The boy smiled warmly. _Just like him… _"Hey," he said. His voice was boyish and light. "I'm Nagihiko Fujisaki. It's nice to meet you."

"Please sit next to Rima Mashiro over there." _Curse you, Nikaidou._

Said girl raised her hand numbly, and Nagihiko walked to the desk and sat down. _Don't talk to me, _Rima thought – no, begged, though she didn't know whom she was begging to.

Of course karma hated her. It hated everyone. "Hello, Rima-chan, nice to meet you." Nagihiko smiled and put out his hand for her to shake.

Involuntarily, Rima reacted. She whacked his hand away and yelled, "Don't touch me!" Nagihiko stared in shock. Her eyes were clouded with fear and… confusion?

"W-what's wrong?" he asked. Rima ran out of the classroom, ignoring Nikaidou-sensei's call of "Wait!" Finally, she reached the girls' bathroom and began to cough. Tears stung at her eyes. _Don't cry, _she told herself angrily. Rima had succeeded in not crying for three years. She wasn't going to start now.

It was a boy like him that had ruined her life. And at that moment, Rima made a decision: No matter how he treated her, she wasn't going to like him. She wasn't going to blindly trust like she did before.

Rima Mashiro was going to hate Nagihiko Fujisaki.

Nagihiko stared at the empty desk with wide eyes. _Why did she run away? _He thought back to the look in her eyes. Confused, he looked at the top of his new desk as though maybe it would give him answers. He decided to wait until after class. Maybe he'd been too forward.

_Hmm… _Nikaidou thought. Maybe it was that boy. Yup, it was definitely Nagihiko. He smiled. Being a boyfriend to his most rebellious slacker's foster mom had its perks. Also, there was Yukari's much younger brother, Kairi Sanjo, to rely on. Rima probably hadn't noticed him watching her intently from behind his glasses when she wasn't looking, trying to observe her and get information for Nikaidou. And Rima thought he knew nothing – when he and Kairi, two people she barely knew, practically had all the info on her life.

Rima was so busy trying not to make eye-contact with Nagihiko when she got back that when she murmured a lame "Had to go to the bathroom" to no one in particular, she failed to catch the knowing smile on Nikaidou's face. When the school day was over she bolted from her desk and ran all the way home, pausing once or twice to catch her breath.

Yes, Rima was grateful that her home was so close to the school, even though she didn't know it was for a reason.

She opened the front door and walked into the house. As she did, she could hear Ms. Sanjo watching soap operas. "As usual…" she muttered to herself. Yukari Sanjo was kind, but… let's just say they didn't really see eye-to-eye.

All of a sudden, Rima Mashiro felt tired, despite it being four in the afternoon. She decided that she would just stay out of Nagihiko's way tomorrow, too. After all, if she didn't become close to him he couldn't do anything to her, could he? No, he couldn't. Rima went to bed and fell asleep, a peaceful smile on her face.

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><p><strong>Alright, alright. I get it. This sucked, I know. But for those of you who actually <strong>_**like **_**this, BE WARNED. This is my first Rimahiko story, and despite how I absolutely love the pairing, I've found out that I'm not so good at writing about them. And yes, I did try writing about them, but ended up trashing all my other Rimahiko stories before even publishing them… so this is just an experiment – nothing else. I did this because I finally forced myself to publish a Rimahiko after chickening out five million times, so it's expected to suck. I could end up deleting this at any moment.**

**So, do me a favor and if you actually like this, **_**please **_**review to give me some encouragement. I'm suffering from a serious case of writer's block (remember how I didn't update for a month on my other stories?) and I need all the help I can get. And if you don't like this, that's even better; please just click that little blue review button and help poor old me get back on track with some advice. Writer's block really does suck, and procrastination just **_**has **_**to add its two cents in – of course. In fact, I'll write a one-shot about procrastination to help my writer's block. Yeah, that seems like a good idea. You don't have to read it; I assure you it will suck worse than this chapter did.**

**And also, if you want me to update on my other stories you can say so in these reviews, but please say something about this story too, otherwise there would be no point and you could just PM me, right? (Unless you don't have an FFn account – but that's beside the point.) Well, gotta get to work on that procrastination one-shot! **


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